The default bread at Darby Dan’s is Dutch
crunch, but you can also request white, wheat, light rye, sourdough roll
or sliced sourdough. I never liked the name “Dutch Crunch”
for bread because it sounds like a coffee cake and it has that unappealing,
stretch mark look. But a name is not enough to dissuade me from ordering
a meat filled roll of any denomination.

The Darby Dan ($6.50):

... is slathered with a zingy jalapeno
spread and inflated with ham, mortadella, Italian salami, tomato, lettuce
and cheese. The ingredients were fresh and flavorful and made for those
more interested in tastiness than daintiness. It has been my experience
that most places with uber-supersized portions are neglectful when it
comes to taste. Luckily for me, this double D of a sandwich did not waver
on flavor.

I used to think that “piccolo” meant small, but that was before
I ordered a Piccolo ($6.50):

Ham, turkey roast beef tomato, lettuce and cheese separate
the Dutch doors of bread. This wasn’t as tasty
as the Darby Dan, but it was still good.

This isn’t the sort of place:

... that is filled with ladies who
lunch and blow air kisses. It’s a cafeteria style sandwich shop
filled with big, hungry boys.

It looks like I will be spending less time in Novato
so it was good to end of a sour note. The Novato food that I enjoyed the
most was from Boca, Kitchen and Quezada Market. When the folks from Kitchen
open their new endeavor across the street, I’ll bet it will be good
too.

I had mostly bad luck with the Chinese, Mexican and Japanese restaurants.
I found Thai food to be a better Novato option at Chao
Praya and Café Bangkok.

So it’s so long to Novato for a while. I will come
back if I’m in the ‘nabe for a Boca steak or a Quezada tamale
or if I want to hob nob with the Vikings.

Café Bangkok
2007 Novato Blvd.
Novato, CA
415.899.9967

Wednesday,
March 29, 2006

Gelato Milano may sound like a highly
abbreviated haiku or a Pepperidge Farm enhanced ice cream but it’s
really a little scoop shop near the Berkeley Bart station.

See’s candies used
to be rooted here, but grafted onto it’s sugary stump is now a gelateria
which serves up some fridged raters.

I got a small cup ($3.00):

... which you can fill with up to two flavors. I chose
Asian pear and grapefruit. From the sound of it, you
might think that these are light ices, but they are actually, cream enhanced,
fruity concoctions. The Asian pear was good but I favored the grapefruit
which had a nicely balanced tang and sweet level.

The space is Spartan verging on clinical
but warmed up by a hospitable counterperson. I’m
glad to see this glimmer of gelato hope in Downtown Berkeley which always
feels like a hub rather than a destination. Busses and bart shuffle people
to school and work as they cel yell (or just yell without the cel.) Most
of the shops are uninviting, the vibe is cold. But now there is somewhere
both cold and inviting to visit on the warm days to come.

Gelato Milano
2170 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA
510.649.1888

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

I'm guessing that Epicurious Gardens will be in full gear by
next weekend.

So far what I have tried here shows promise but I feel like it's a poor
man's Ferry building (okay, a rich poor man.) That might sound
like I'm knocking it, but I'm not. It's just that there are branches of
Ciao Bella and the Imperial Tea House as well as chocolate shops, a caviar
shop, rotisserie chicken and a Japanese deli in the spacious Ferry Building.

Is this the beginning of the Gapification of food? Will all the Panda Expresses and Jamba Juices of the world be replaced with Gregoire Kings and In N Out the Doors? Only time will tell.

I picked up a little sampler box ($7.00):

... of mini chocolates at Alegio. These chili, espresso and scotch dark chocolates are made in New York by a woman who supplies custom creations for to this shop.I particularly liked the heat of the rich chili ganache.

This is a pretty little jewelbox of a choco-boutique.

The people who run it are very friendly and knowledgeable. They were also slicing off samples to test drive before you buy. Gotta love that.

Alegio Chocolate
1511 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA
510.435.3586

Monday, March 27, 2006

Soop is good Food:

I checked out the half dozen liquid offerings at Soop:

... in the new Epicurious Gardens. They were out of the black eyed pea and kale so I scanned the rest of the pots.

What bunrab could resist carrot soup? ($5.50):

This bright tasting, hearty, vegetarian soup was delicious.
It’'s ginger infused rootiness was made with organic
carrots from Mariquita farms, potatoes, almonds, sour cream and sherry.
You can buy add ons like croutons, pestos and seeds, but I went with just
the basic package and it was sooper.

Just down the way, Dom Petroff Caviar looks like it should open any time now.

The big question on my mind is if there is a caviar audience in the ghetto (okay, okay, gourmet ghetto.)

The footprint of this caviar-teria
is very small and the idea of caviar is that it's a luxury food. Will
this work in a food court? Will the elite meet to eat on the street? Maybe
this can start a new trend. You know how Cristal Champagne was transformed
into “Chrissy” due to its popularity with rappers? Maybe Dom
Petroff will experience that same rapification. Maybe you will slide up
in your Escalade for some 'petro” while others compare you to their
local grocery to see that you've got more karats than aisle D and more
bread than aisle G…and speaking of bread, doesn't this cash register
seem a little small for this pricey operation?

... (which looked on par with the sushi in their restaurant) and proceeded to the Socca Oven:

... which is the latest addition to the sprouting Gregoire empire. Socca Oven makes little chickpea flour based flatbreads. These pizza-esque disks are baked in their non-wood burning (yet rustic looking) oven:

Little copper pans are filled with a thin layer of batter, baked and then topped with a choice of vegetarian or meatatarian toppings.

My Bay Scallops Socca ($7.25):

... was topped with braised fennel, a generous
number of bivalves and a squiggle of saffron aioli. You get a
little tub of olive oil with your socca, I tried it and decided it didn't
really add anything to this particular preparation and I gave it a needed
sprinkle of Maldon salt (that I happened to be carrying with me.)
It was good but didn't have the “wow” factor. I will be back
for another visit to try the pork shoulder with mushrooms and truffle
oil which sounds like it has tastiness potential. The base of the socca
could have used another pinch of salt, it was on the bland side, but to
be fair, they are just starting out so I'll have to see how things are
when they settle in.

I do have a twinge of guilt when I
eat at Gregoire's because of the nice, heavy duty, single use, packaging.
Socca has a smaller version of this box and it's a shame that there isn't
the option to use a small paper plate for customers who want to consume
them on the spot (this is environmentally correct Berkeley after all.)

Gluten haters, dairy intolerant and wheataphobes
should find themselves in a culinary womb. Their food doesn't even use
sugar which I consider a health food (well, at least a mental health food.)

After confirming that they were indeed open, I ventured
out to Epicurious Gardens to see what this Berkeley food court
was all about.

The layout is not conducive to the smooth and intuitive
movement of people. There should be at least triple the space in the mosh
pit of a main hallway where people are waiting for their food during this
inaugural Saturday. It felt like a pop up sponge version of the Ferry
Building without the water.

I was bummed that there was not a drop to drink at Taste
today. Red tape replaced red wine which translated into a nay on the cab.
Their fancy wine dispensers (like the ones at Vino Venue in SF):

... were sitting dormant. The bottles
of Sean Thackrey’s wine Siriusly mocking me (when I could have used
a belt of Orion.)

I got a box lunch ($10):

... which contained a Moroccan spiced leg and
thigh, medjool date and almond couscous and a slaw made with
preserved lemon, harissa and chermoula.

I’m guessing that the reason why my chicken was overcooked
was that they anticipated higher weekend bird sales. It was 1:30 on a
Saturday and there wasn’t another chicken order placed while I was
there. Anyway, for whatever reason it qualified as chicken jerky. It helped
to roll bits of it up in the naan with a dab of the harissa.

The couscous was okay with it’s finely chopped
micro bits of date and slivers of almonds, but the best part of the box
was the crunchy slaw with earthy cilantro.

There is some seating along a bar in the sunny tasting room:

... or you can take your meal into the small
courtyard.

Once they get the wine pump primed,
I imagine that the bar area will fill up pretty quickly.
I will come back to try Taste when they have a chance
to establish a stride. It’s only their first weekend so who knew
what to expect? They had a parade of people checking out their menu, but
not a lot of diners. And with the wine permit-jammed, it just wasn’t
the day to visit.